The present invention relates generally to automated machinery and more particularly to automated door processing equipment for preparation of pre-hung doors.
The invention pertains to the construction industry where it has long been found expedient to limit manufacture of component parts of a structure under construction. For that reason, doors, windows, cabinets and similar component parts of a building are often delivered to the construction site in various states of completion to be finished according to requirements then prevailing for the particular job.
Doors are one example of such prefabricated components, and it just so happens one to which the present invention pertains. Doors are often manufactured for delivery to a construction site in various pre-prepared states, sizes, and xe2x80x9chandedness.xe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cHandednessxe2x80x9d refers to the edges of a door at which the hinge and door locks for the door are installed). A builder may require several different sizes and types of doors for a single house or building being constructed. Some doors will need to have the necessary lock and/or latch hole drilling at one door edge and the hinge routing for door at the other so that the door xe2x80x9chardwarexe2x80x9d (e.g., locks, latches, hinges, etc.) can be located to allow the door to open away to the right. Conversely, other doors may be need that open away to the left, necessitating an alternate placement of door hardware. Door hardware for a right-opening door will need to be installed on edges opposite to that for a left-opening door. (Hardware installation may either be at the construction site or by the manufacturer.) And, to perhaps make matters worse, hinge and faceplate patterns can be different, each likely requiring mortises with dimensions different from the others.
Doors that are manufactured for delivery to a construction site are usually referred to as xe2x80x9cpre-hung,xe2x80x9d and most often comprise three basic components: the door, a head jamb or header (the horizontal part of the door frame above the door), and two side jambs, the hinge jamb and the strike jamb. Pre-hanging a door will include forming the various mortises and holes in a door blank and its associated side jambs for the hinges, face plates, door locks, etc. that will used with the door, and then assembling these components. (Alternatively, the door components may be prepared, but not assembled, and shipped in their unassembled state for assembly elsewhere. Known as xe2x80x9cknock-downxe2x80x9d units, unassembled doors still require preparation for accepting the requisite door hardware.)
The manufacture of pre-hung doors or knock-down units (hereinafter, cumulatively referred to as pre-hung doors) can be labor intensive due to the variety shapes and sizes of doors and the hardware added to them. For example, interior doors will usually have two hinges whereas an exterior door will often have three hinges. Thus, a door for interior use will need to be prepare to accept two hinges, while an exterior door will be prepared for three hinges.
To reduce costs, the door manufacturing industry has resorted to automation wherever possible in order to reduce many of the labor-intensive aspects of door manufacture, providing automated workstations at which the various door preparation activities can take place. An example of an automated door preparation system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,895.
However, even though the use of automated equipment available today can reduce the cost door prefabrication is still costly and labor-intensive. And, use of much of the present automated equipment requires trained individuals, again raising the cost. Even though automated, if the type, style, or size of door changes, the equipment must either be reset for the particular door to be drilled/routed for pre-hanging, or if the equipment cannot be reset to work on doors of a particular type, size, etc. the doors must be prepared by another piece of equipment or manually.
Thus, it is evident that the preparation of doors to ready them for the addition of hinges, locks, and other door hardware still needs further automation to be able to have one piece of equipment for handling doors of many different sizes and styles.
The present invention is a versatile door preparation station that provides a menu-driven selection of door processing parameters, allowing doors of a wide variety of configurations (i.e., length, width, and thickness) to be pre-hung and prepared for acceptance of a broad range of door hardware. Mortising for hinges and face plates, drilling for locks and dead bolts are easily defined and changed through a series of menus that lead one through the various parameters.
Broadly, the invention is directed to a door preparation station with a data processing-control for presenting sequences of menus that are arranged to guide one through parameter selection to configuration and set various machining elements for door preparation operation. A control console provides an interactive display through a touch-sensitive display to provide an operator the ability to select, create, or modify the door machining elements (drills, routing elements, etc.) of the door preparation station. Thereby, the station is preset to receive and prepare doors of one size for pre-hanging. If doors of another size, style, and/or requiring different hardware are to be prepared for pre-hanging, an operator, again through the control console and the guidance provided by the sequences of menus available, can re-program the station for a different set of door specifications.
One aspect of the invention provides a tiltable section of the door preparation machine that allows joint preparation of an edge of a door and its associated jamb for non-beveled door edges (i.e., edges which form a 90 degree angle with the front and back of the door) and beveled door edges. The tiltable section carries the jamb for the door, positioning it proximate the edge of the door to which the jamb will be attached (by the hinges). This allows the hinge mortises to be simultaneously formed in the door and the jamb. In addition, when the tiltable section is pivoted, the jamb goes with it, so that the hinge mortises can still be formed in the jamb and (beveled) door edge flush with both.